Connector link for safety belts and like apparatus



y 1955 c. w ROSE 2,708,778

CONNECTOR .1m: FOR SAFETY BELTS AND LI'KE APPARATUS Filed Nov.. 21,. 1950 Invntpr CLARENCE w ROSE 3B WHITEH'EAD 8 VOGL PER (Ittomegs United States Patent CONNECTOR LINK FOR SAFETY BELTS AND LIKE APPARATUS This invention relates to safety belts for window washers and others working where there is danger of falling, the belt being of the type which includes a substantially non-stretchable service rope and a substantially stretchable safety rope, both being engaged to terminals and both adapted to be engaged by such terminals to anchors at both of their ends. The description will be in terms of a window washers belt with terminals engageable with anchors in the building wall.

An object of the invention is to provide improved means for insuring the release of the service rope from an anchor in the event of a fall of the wearer and to thereby permit the safety rope to receive the principal impact of the fall.

Other objects of this invention include the provision of a new and improved clip for engaging to the terminals each end of the service rope, which clip is sufiiciently sturdy to withstand all stresses normally imposed upon the service rope but which will yield, and disengage, the service rope from a terminal, responsive to the impact resulting from a fall of the wearer; which is especially adapted to resist stresses of a twisting or prying nature such, for example, as might be caused by twisting of the ropes; which, in releasing the service rope as upon a fall of the wearer, will absorb a small part of the energy generated by the fall and thereby somewhat reduce the stress exerted on the safety rope, thus reducing to some extent the shortening of the useful life of the safety rope; which permits easy adjustments of the operative length of the service rope for working areas of various widths; which facilitates the untwisting of inadvertently twisted service and safety ropes, and which is an exceedingly simple and economical construction.

With these, and other objects in view, all of which more fully hereinafter appear, my invention comprises certain new and novel constructions, combinations and arrangements of elements as hereinafter described and as defined in the appended claim and illustrated, in preferred embodiment, in the accompanying drawing in which:

Figure 1 is an illustrative representation of a window washers safety belt of a type including both a service and a safety rope, showing my improved clip incorporated therein.

Figure 2 is an enlarged detail of my improved means for engaging the service and safety ropes to a terminal of a conventionalized type.

Figure 3 is an enlarged side view of the improved clip construction which engages the service rope to the terminal.

Figure 4 is a plan view of the clip shown at Fig. 3.

Figure 5 is a view similar to Fig. 4 but illustrating the clip in the course of being disengaged from the terminal responsive to an abnormal pull of the service rope,

Figure 6 is a view of a type of clip formerly in use and is shown only for the purpose of clarifying, by comparison, the description of the structure and function of my improved clip.

Figure 7 is an end view of the construction illustrated LIL at Fig. 6, showing such clip in the course of its separation from the terminal through twisting.

The illustrated window washers safety belt has a body band 10 made of webbing or other suitable belting material and is adapted to be fastened about an operators midrifi as with a buckle 11, the buckle generally being at the front of the belt. At the rear portion of the band, there are rope eyes 12 engaged to the band 10 in conventional manner as at 13. A suitable padding member 14 is also engaged to band 10. Each rope eye 12 is provided with an orifice 15 for a service rope 16, threaded therethrough, and an orifice 17 for a safety rope 18, likewise threaded therethrough. The service rope 15 may be of manila or any other conventional, substantially unstretchable material from which ropes are commonly made. The safety rope 18 is formed of plastic substance such as undrawn nylon or other energy-absorbing material, having a characteristic of stretchability to many times its initial length, thereby absorbing the energy of a fall.

Both of these ropes are engaged at their ends to terminals 19, each of which has a slotted finger 20 which is adapted to engage the Wall anchors commonly found at the sides of window openings, and a lock 21 adapted to lock the terminal upon such anchor. Each terminal is also provided with a ring 22 for engagement to the safety rope, as by an eye splice 23, but the service rope is engaged to this ring 22 by my improved, releasing clip 24.

This clip 24 is formed as an elongated, broken loop with the free ends 25 thereof being threaded through the rings 22 and each turned around the ring body approximately of a revolution. The clip is preferably tapered to a smaller end 26 which is turned about a diameter slightly less than that of the service rope, whereby the service rope may be held in this end by a bight 27, or any other type of self-locking, but manually-releasable hitch. The link may be parallel sided as illustrated at Fig. 3. Whether tapered or parallel sided the sides adjacent the closed end of the link must be close enough to each other so that the rope bight 27 will be held in binding position on top of that portion of the rope which lies against the end of the link and be prevented from wedging past it when lessened in diameter responsive to excessive pull thereon. In this manner, the service rope may be adjusted to any given length between the terminals and may thereby be adapted for use upon windows of various widths or in any other manner to suit the operator. Likewise, the rope may be loosened in a clip 24 for untwisting or other purposes whenever desired, thus functioning in place of the swivel device commonly employed. To prevent unintentional or inadvertent slipping of the rope out of the clip 24, the ends of the rope are formed with a turks-head knot 28 or balled in any other manner.

The clip 24 is formed of a malleable wire of a diameter which permits suflicient rigidity of the turned ends 25 to prevent their being straightened under any normal tensile or twisting strain but which will permit their straightening or separation as clearly illustrated at Fig. 5, responsive to the impact of a fall of the operator without placing excessive strain upon the anchor or the operator. One advantage of this clip is that the straightening out of the ends 25 dissipates a certain amount of energy, and this factor assists in decelerating the fall of the operator thus lessening the burden cast upon the safety rope when ends 25 separate from ring 22, thus somewhat increasing the life of the safety rope, such ropes generally being usable for only a limited number of falls.

The further advantage of this construction of clips over the conventional type, such as a link 29 having a split end 30, is that such a link as 29 must be made of considerably stronger and heavier material, and where such a link is properly designed to open at the split end 30 whenever a fall occurs, it is weak in resisting torsional forces which Patented May 24, 1955- 3 tend to pry or twist it apart, in the manner illustrated at Fig. 7.

While I have herein described and illustrated a preferred embodiment of my invention, alternatives and equivalents of construction will occur to those skilled in the art, and hence it is my desire that I be limited in my protection only by the proper scope of the appended claim.

I claim:

In a safety belt having a terminal and a substantially non-stretchable service rope and a substantially stretchable safety rope, a detachable link adapted to engage the service rope to the ring of a terminal, comprising a broken member formed as an elongated loop with the end portions thereof overlapping snugly and substantially encircling the wall of said ring, said link being made of malleable wire whereby said end portions are adapted to straighten and release the ring responsive to an abnormal pull on the link.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 60,624 Fay Dec. 18, 1866 870,657 Woodworth Nov. 12, 1907 1,192,896 Hine Aug. 1, 1916 1,559,053 Sexauer Oct. 27, 1925 1,752,619 Summerfeld Apr. 1, 1930 

